(Additional photograph below.)
As the state moves to revoke RegalCare of a dozen nursing home licenses following a Boston Globe Spotlight report on debilitating cost cutting, the company’s chief is involved in an effort to buy a nonprofit nursing home in Haverhill.
Last June, Covenant Health President and CEO Stephen J. Grubbs told staff the nonprofit planned to sell its 160-bed Penacook Place in downtown Haverhill to Azure Healthcare. Filings at the Secretary of State’s Corporations Division, however, suggest Azriel Lieberman, founder of Azure Healthcare Management, is working with RegalCare CEO Eliyahu Mirlis on the purchase of the Haverhill home.
Lieberman is listed as manager of OC Penacook Center, in a filing last November, while Mirlis filed last March to create 150 Water St Realty, a name mirroring the address of Penacook Place. State Rep. Andy X. Vargas told WHAV Wednesday he is alarmed to see the pair working together.
“Over the past couple of days, we have been in touch with DPH, the AG’s office and other state officials to ensure the voices of Penacook patients, families and staff are heard. The actors involved in this potential transaction are very concerning to say the least. This transaction deserves extra and new scrutiny, given the poor track record of the proposed buyers involved. Patient safety and care cannot be comprised for profit and we remain focused on advocating accordingly,” he said.
Covenant Health spokesperson Karen R. Sullivan told WHAV Wednesday, the first of two state approvals has already come through. She explained the Department of Public Health’s Division of Health Care Facility Licensure and Certification “gave its approval of the suitability of this transaction at the end of July.”
A second approval is required by Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell’s Nonprofit and Charities Division to allow Penacook Place’s nonprofit status to be dissolved. Officials said, and Sullivan confirmed, final approval has not been given. WHAV did not receive a response from the state Department of Public Health in time for this story.
Retired Penacook Place President and CEO Julian Rich, reached at his home, told WHAV he has become increasingly concerned about corporate focus on the quantitative rather than the qualitative.
“Overall, I’m very disturbed at the corporations that have gotten involved and bought up facilities, often at the expense of quality care,” he said.
Rich stepped down in 2013 as Covenant Health provided management services before its later purchase. In the intervening years, Rich has served as an expert witness in court, most often on the side of those harmed who have been wronged by health care facilities.
As WHAV reported in 2017, Covenant Health, which describes itself as a “Catholic regional health delivery network,” took ownership of Penacook Place, 150 Water St., Haverhill, which was founded in 1969 as Union Mission Nursing Home.
Asked if Covenant Health has any concerns about the buyer, Sullivan said, “Our commitment to Penacook Place remains firm. We are asking the necessary questions, monitoring quality closely and continuing to focus on what is best for our residents.”
Penacook Place, 150 Water St., Haverhill. (WHAV News photograph.)